The Web is Tough

Let's face it, the web is not getting any easier for anyone. Sure, for we developer folk, ingenuity is thriving with intuitive javascript frameworks, integrated development environments with useful features like "intellisense" and "designer view" (okay, maybe they aren't all useful). The gradual mainstream browser interpretation of web standards has greatly helped the cause, as well. In some cases, it adds more complication. To do a high-end, Microsoft-driven web application these days, you practically need to know more languages than a Soviet spy (well, and technologies too). XHTML, CSS, ASP.NET, C#, Javascript, SQL, Prototype JQuery Mootools.. (pick one)... This doesn't even begin to touch on how much there is to think about when you are deciding what you want it to look like, or how you're going to organize your information and content. Did I mention that somebody has to write the content?

It is really tough to make a great website. So tough, that no matter how versatile one is in their talents, no single person can do it all. It is no longer reasonable for companies large and small to expect to be able to hire a webmaster and have them deliver all of the company's web needs. If a person like that exists, they will be immortalized as a web superhero. Like a Dave Shea or Zeldman that can code. As more awareness of this spreads throughout the business world, the economy of web services market (and I mean commercial services, not in the programmatic sense) will continue to surge, and full-service agencies like (shameless plug here) ISITE Design will grow to become just as necessary to large companies as a typical ad agency.

Despite a company being able to offload the heavy lifting to a third party, creating a website will still be tough. What is the purpose of your site? Is it simply marketing brochure-ware? Do you want to plug people in? Do you want to create a community?

On the strategic side of the business, we like to talk about the portrait of a user. Understanding your user demographic is one of the most important things you can consider from a business perspective. For this reason, strategic webbites like to profile users. Are they contributors in that they post content like videos to YouTube? Do they create their own sites, profiles and content? Do they collect lots of information for their own analysis? Or do they simply kick back and take the whole experience in? These are great ways to think about how you can make your website optimized for users of different personalities. I like to think of it like visual, aural and kinesthetic learners.

Another side of the equation is where will your content reside? At some point, business users start talking about a CMS (Content Management System). These can get complicated for an end-user very quickly, and can provide a lot of flexibility. Inevitably, they will require plenty of planning. What should you use that is out of the box? How should you structure your content? How will you manage your end-users and access to the CMS? What about localization? How about Third party integration?